Funding

In order to support business creation, École Polytechnique provides structures and systems that help finance the projects of its entrepreneurial students and researchers.

There are two phases in financing the creation of a start-up: the first brings the idea to maturity; the second funds the early stages.

Financing maturation

Financing maturation is the stage of business creation which moves the project from the research results to a technology.This decisive stage aims to increase the reliability of research results on target applications, and must secure the transfer by finalizing technical, intellectual property, legal, and sales and marketing issues.

Finance for the work involved may be provided by :> École Polytechnique which finances maturation activities using its own funds and also through theX Foundation'sfund-raising campaign.> The technology transfer acceleration company (Société d’Accélération de Transfert de Technologie - SATT) at Paris-Saclay which speeds up the recognition of public-research results by industrial players. The SATTfinances in particular maturing projects from establishments that are part of the University. It structures its development proposals while developing its relationships with industry. In addition, the SATT receives substantial funding from the Invest in the Future Program.

Early-stage financing

At this stage, the financing actually creates a business. École Polytechnique already has structures and systems to help entrepreneurs during this stage of financing :> X-création, a joint subsidiary of the École Polytechnique and the Foundation, which aims to facilitate the integration of business-creation projects into the business community. The company helps start-ups from the laboratories at the École Polytechnique's research center via a seed fund. X-création is in touch with many support and financing bodies, including Scientipôle Initiative, regional centers of innovation and technology transfer (Centres Régionaux d’Innovation et de Transfert de Technologie - CRITT), thematic networks for advanced research (Réseaux Thématiques de Recherches Avancées - RTRA), HEC Start-up and the Agoranovincubator.> XMP-BADGE (BusinessAngels) is an association of Business Angels and alumni of the École Polytechnique, École des Mines, and École des Ponts et Chaussées. XMP-BADGE aims to financially support both start-ups from the École Polytechnique's laboratories, and those run by former X students.